Hello fellow barn guys and ladybarners - been doing a lot of thinking about what rational boogs like yourselves should expect out of our football {hugh voice} progrum. Most people's expectations have been skewed by Saban and Kirby the last decade or so, so I wonder how you guise think about what makes a good season or good program in light of historical norms.
A few historical notes:
Despite the built-in disadvantages we have (not being a flagship state school, sandwiched in between two powerhouses and competing with more, tide-influenced media, etc), we have shown the ability across decades to compete at the highest level. Given our historical standing as an 8 win team that has the ability to compete for championships, I would like to suggest the four following expectations:
As the landscape has changed with NIL and portal, these feel like fair assumptions. Tell me where I'm wrong, suck, need to go to therapy, or whatever else is on yer mind. TIA, WDE, TBIAPOB, SIW, etc.
Editor's Note: The eagle flying good is a baked-in assumption.
A few historical notes:
- We have a historical winning percentage of .625 (an average of 7.5 wins over a 12 game schedule) #solid
- We've won slightly more bowls than we have lost (24-20).
- We have played in the SEC Championship 6 times since 1992. We are 3-3. We have played in the game 5th most out of the SEC, only trailing LSU by one appearance. (Thanks again, JON VAUGHN)
- Every coach since Pat Dye has played for an SEC Championship until the stair-running Potato Head.
- We are one of five SEC teams to play for a NC since 2000.
- We are 19th in overall NCAA win percentage (16th if you remove mid-majors) and 19th in overall wins (15th if you remove powerhouses like Mount Union, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton).
- Our recruiting has generally been somewhere between 5 and 20 in the Rivals era. Since Saban's first full class (2008), we have finished above the bam bams 1 time, above UGA 3 times, and above LSU 4 times. Our average class ranking between 2008 and 2020 (excluding the potato classes b/c eff that guy) is 10.76. We recruit at around a top 10 level, but rarely out-recruit our main rivals.
Despite the built-in disadvantages we have (not being a flagship state school, sandwiched in between two powerhouses and competing with more, tide-influenced media, etc), we have shown the ability across decades to compete at the highest level. Given our historical standing as an 8 win team that has the ability to compete for championships, I would like to suggest the four following expectations:
Recruiting: Top 10 Class Every Year - with the ability to sling lumber-magnate cash around, there's no reason not to
Record: Given the ability to recruit at a high level through NIL, the expectation should be to raise our baseline from 7-8 wins seasons to 8 wins minimum and pushing toward 9-10 win averages. I'm iffy on this one given that we haven't had back-to-back double-digit win seasons since ya boi was crappin his huggies but I'm going for it.
Results: No more than 3-4 losses in a 5 year stretch to schools outside the traditional SEC Big 6, Texas, or Oklahoma. With the gap in resources widening, losing to Mississippi State, Arkansas, Missouri or the like should be a seismic failure. Maybe replace Tennessee in the Big 6 paradigm with A&M. Lane will leave OM in a few years and they will regress to their place.
Rplayoff: Every senior class that comes through the program experiences the 12 team playoff at least once. Finishing Top 12 at least once every four years feels like a low bar but I'ma be honest and say that I'm too lazy to look up who automatically gets in so this feels like a fair starting point.
As the landscape has changed with NIL and portal, these feel like fair assumptions. Tell me where I'm wrong, suck, need to go to therapy, or whatever else is on yer mind. TIA, WDE, TBIAPOB, SIW, etc.
Editor's Note: The eagle flying good is a baked-in assumption.
